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PUBLISHED FROM THE OFFICE OF THE BUFFALO PATRIOT AND JOURNAL. 



THE DUTY OF AMERICANS. 



s:e=>:exeo:h: 

Of Gen. G. A. SCROGGS, (President of the American State Council), at the 
American Meeting held at Aurora, Erie Co., N. Y., Aug. 4, 1860. 

AND OF 

Hon. GEO. B. BABCOOK, on taking the Chair at the Lincoln Mass Meeting, held 
at Buffalo, Aug. 4, 1860. 

ALSO, 

Speech of Hon. JAMES 0. PUTNAM, in reply to Ex-Governor Hunt, delivered at 
Lockport, July 19th, 1860, together with Articles from the Buffalo Commer- 
cial Advertiser on the pending Election. 



THE AURORA MEETING, 



SPEECH OF GEN. G. A. SCROGGS. 

Mr. Presidknt and Gentlemen: 

1 am much gratified to avail myself of the op- 
portunity afforded me through your kind invita- 
tion, to meet with you on this occasion, and, as 
an American and supporter of Fillmore and 
Donelson in 1856, join with my political friends 
and coadjutors of Aurora and the adjacent towns, 
in a "free discussion (in the language of the 
call) and consultation upon the principles and 
platforms of the different parties, and upon the 
most judicious course to be adopted in support 
of a Presidential candidate." . 

Before entering upon such a discussion and 
consultation, it behooves us all to divest our 
minds of every prejudice and bias that may tend 
lowarp our judgments, and to have an eye single 
towards an honest inquiry concerning the politi- 
cal obligations we owe to our country, and in 
what way. at this juncture, we can conscien- 
tiously discharge them for its best welfare. 

Whilst I do not wish to obtrude my own views 
or opinions upon any one for his inconsiderate 
acquiescence, approval or adoption, nor state my 
conclusions as irreversible finalities. I beg leave 
to submit for your consideration and judgment. 
the result of a careful and earnest endeavor, 
made, I trust, in a patriotic spirit and with a due 
regard for my own honor, to determine for my- 
self a course of political action, under the present 
existing circumstances. 



That my views upon the questions under con- 
sideration are widely different from the views ol 
many of you, I have no doubt. Whether or not 
they are concurred in by any of you, 1 have no 
means of knowing. But I do know that they 
are honestly entertained, that in my judgment 
they are patriotic, and as I believe most consis- 
tent and honorable for any one who claims to b< 
an American to entertain and adopt, for his po- 
litical government in the present emergency. 

That I have maintained an allegiance to th» 
American party parallel with any man in the 
land, no one, I think, will presume to dispute — 
And I here declare my intention to stand by, 
and maintain the principles of that party, in the 
reasonable and conservative sense in which f al- 
ways have understood and maintained them, dis- 
carding as I likewise always have, both in theory 
and practice, such of its dogmas as seemed to 
me to be unreasonable, impracticable or intoler- 
ant. With this general allegation as to my faith 
and practice concerning the principles of the 
American party, without detaining you wiih an 
exposition of my views in detail touching rhem, 
which would be out of place now, I will proceed 
to the discussion of the subjects which are more 
immediately within the scope of our investiga- 
tion at the present time. 

As Americans we are under no obligations of 
party allegiance to give our support to any one 
of the nominations for President and Vice-Pre- 
sident The American party has not nominated 
any candidates for those offices. It has not called, 
neither will it call any convention for or take any 






steps towards making such nominations for onr 
support at the next election. 

The only National Convention that Americans 
have participated in, even as individuals, was 
the National Union Convention which met at 
Baltimore in May last, and nominated Mr. Bell 
for President and Mr. Everett for Vice-Presi- 
dent. But that was not an American Conven- 
tion. It was called by a committee of gentlemen 
appointed by a number of Senators, members of 
Congress and others, who met from time to time 
during the past winter at Washington city, for 
the purpose of taking measures to organize a 
party under the name of the National Union 
party. 

One object of the organization of this new 
party was to relieve some gentlemen who styled 
themselves old line whigs. from certain • preju- 
dices which they were known to entertain against 
the American party and its organization. — 
Through the operation of this movement, the 
American party, in the name of which many of 
us were so justly proud, was set aside and its 
national organization abandoned. 

In the outset, it seemed to me that the national 
union party movement might be of some efficacy 
in uniting the opposition to the Buchanan de- 
mocracy throughout the country; consequently 
I gave it, to a certain extent, my feeble co-oper- 
ation. But the proceedings of its national con- 
vention at Baltimore, and certain subsequent as 
well as present proceedings of those who assume 
to shape and direct its course and policy, satisfy 
me that, at this juncture at least, it cannot be of 
any efficiency in settling or reconciling the pre- 
sent conflicting moral and political sentiment 
which is creating so much disquiet and solicitude 
throughout the land. 

And here I wish to call the attention of Amer- 
icans to the fact that the national union conven- 
tion never uttered a syllable, either by resolution, 
address, or otherwise, in any way signifying that 
it endorsed or approved a single principle or 
doctrine of the American party. Neither are its 
nominees representatives of the American party. 
Mr. Bell is a whig, and never was anything else 
but a whig. When the old whig party gave up 
the ghost, he, with the great mass of the opposi- 
tion to the democracy in the South, were desig- 
nated by the name of Americans. Mr. Everett 
was never claimed, nor was he ever considered, 
as anything else, politically, than an old line 
whig. Indeed, from the antecedents of both 
these gentlemen, an American has no right to 
expect any more consideration for his peculiar 
political dogmas from them than he has from the 
other candidates. 

Nevertheless, many Americans and Fillmore 
men now look towards Mr. Bell as their first 
choice for the Presidency, and indulge the hope 
that by some fortunate chance he may be elected. 
By many such it is supposed that if the election 
of President could be thrown into the House of 
Representatives, Mr. Bell's chance of success 
there would be the best. And to that end it is 
proposed by some to form an electoral ticket in 
this State, which shall receive the united vote of 
the Americans, Fillmore, and Douglas men, tak- 
ing it for granted that if Mr. Lincoln does not 



receive the electoral vote of this State the elec- 
tion will go to the House. It is not pretended. 1 
believe, that any other candidate than Lincoln 
stands in any serious danger of an election by 
the electoral college. 

In the first place, let us examine into the fea- 
sibility of the plan proposed to defeat Mr. Lin- 
coln. 

Who knows that the Douglas men are willing 
to enter into such an arrangement ? I am sure 
I do not know it: neither have I been able to 
find any one who does. There may be some who 
are in the secret; I confess I am not, though 1 
have been very diligent in seeking for intelligence 
about the matter. I have heard it stated, gener- 
ally, that the Douglas men are willing to enter 
into a kind of a copartnership with us in forming 
an electoral ticket, but I have not been able to 
find any one who could inform me that it was 
positively so; much less give me any idea of the 
amoiint of capital that we or they were to have 
in the concern. True, I may be without the 
pale of the wire-workers and rope-pullers in this 
honorable enterprise, and some knowing ones 
may shrug their shoulders, look wise, and say 
" You are kept in the dark : you are not trusted 
with such important political secrets." It may 
be so. Yet I assure you I do not believe that 
the Douglas men will agree to any such arrange- 
ment, unless they can have such a proportion of 
the electoral ticket in the State as will render it 
probable, in case of success, that with the States 
they expect to carry for their candidate besides, 
he will be made the third highest in the electoral 
college. 

What the Douglas men really mean to accom- 
plish by entering into such an arrangement (if 
they mean anything), is to get their candidate 
into the House, third best, They are convinced 
that Breckenridge will carry a large majority of 
the slave States, and that he will be second high- 
est in the electoral college. They have no idea 
of assisting Mr. Bell to the exclusion of Mr, 
Douglas. They hope that, as between Lincoln. 
Breckenridge and Douglas, a combination can 
be made in the House that will elect Mr. Douglas. 
On any other basis I do not believe that the 
Douglas men will unite with the Bell men in 
forming an electoral ticket. Aside from this 
they have nothing to gain, but necessarily much 
to lose. They do not pretend that there is any 
hope for the success of their candidate in any 
other event. As a mere demonstration of politi- 
cal strength, such a movement can avail them 
nothing. Coalitions are known to weaken parties 
that form them, and the Douglas men know that 
they would be demoralized by such a coalition. 
They could not demonstrate their strength by it, 
because it would not be definitely known. The 
Bell strength would be exaggerated by the oppo- 
nents of the Douglas men to their disparagement, 
whilst they would be subjected to the reproach 
of uniting with men betwixt whom and them 
there are no political affinities whatever. The 
Douglas men have less political sagacity than I 
give them credit for, if they enter into such a 
bargain for any other object than such as I first 
suggested. And I need not add, I presume, that 
I do not believe that there are any Americans at 



least who are willing to be used for the attain* 
ment of such an object. 

In the next place, supposing there is such a 
combination made on an electoral ticket, dues 
any man who can see an inch before his nose, 
believe it ran succeed? Certainly it cannot suc- 
ceed. The Breckenridge party is increasing in 
strength, and it will continue to increase, whilst 
there is no gaining to the Douglas ranks, but OB 
the contrary, a constant losing. Sagacious dem- 
ocrats begin to see that the Breckenridge party 
is destined to be the dominant democratic party 
of the country, and that the man who wishes to 
identify his political fortunes with democracy, 
must give in his adhesion to the Breckenridge 
dynasty. If I were about to enter the list as a 
mere political adventurer, regardless of principle, 
amongst the democracy, I most certainly would 
enroll my name amongst the Breckenridge men. 
The Douglas men must luccumb. After the 
next election, having suffered an overwhelming 
defeat, they will disperse, and disappear before 
the ascending dynasty of Breckenridge, like the 
morning mist before 'the rising sun. And such 
us have any conscientious scruples remaining, 
whereby they are restrained from approving and 
advocating slavery extension, a slave code and 
the revival of the 'slave trade, will flee to the re- 
publican ranks; whilst those who have no such 
restraining scruples, but are prepared to yield 
their necks to the yoke, and bow in uncondition- 
al obsequiousness to the slave power, will seek 
admission into the ranks of the Southern democ- 
rat v- 

I't is very clear to me that the democracy must, 
for some time at least, depend mainly upon the 
slave States as the seat of its power, and the 
source of its policy. The slave power will 
quickly repair the breach, and unite the divided 
ranks of its friends. 

The theory of the pro-slavery democracy is 
plain and it is politic. It intends to entrench it- 
self in the slave States, and in a presidential elec- 
tion, make a foray into such northern States as 
may be doubtful,' and by tact and money carry 
enough to elect a democratic President. And in 
this way they intend to hold possession of the 
national administration, with its millions of pat- 
ronage, as well as the control of the army, navy, 
and treasury of the nation. Its adherents in the 
north will 'be rewarded for their loyalty _ by 
appointments to the offices in their various 
localities. 

It is argued by some that the doctrine of non- 
intervention concerning slavery, of which Mr. 
Douglas is. improperly, proclaimed the cham- 
pion^ is to be the negative of the issue, the affirm- 
ative of which is intervention, and that the sen- 
timent of the country is to be divided thus, on 
the slavery question. Without delayiugto con- 
sider the merits of either position on this ques- 
tion, I maintain that the sentiment of the country 
is not to be so divided. Non-intervention is a 
question of policy merely, not of law. It is a 
kind of middle or neutral ground. It would be 
a source of congratulation and rejoicing, if the 
whole country would acquiesce in that policy 
and end the struggle. But this will not be done. 
The slavery question cannot now be regulated 



by that policy. The American party attempted 
to occupy a middle, conciliatory ground on fha: 
perplexing question. It has been all in vain. 
Wo have been crying peace, peace, but there is 
no peace. The agitation of this question has in- 
creased and spread, until it now shakes the whole 
country from its centre to its remotest borders. 
All other questions of principle or governmental 
policy have sunk into insignificance, and it alone 
has become the issue of a presidential campaign. 
We extended our lines and bared our breasts i:: 
lS.iti to meet and quell this agitation. What has 
been our fate? Our lines have been broken on 
all sides — our ranks most sorely thinned, and the 
shattered remnant of our once gallant band is 
now so hemmed in by the striving forces in the 
conflict, that it must be ground to powder if it 
continue to remain in its present untenable posi- 
tion. What then is to be done? To me our 
course is plain. We must choose between these 
Striving forces. It is useless to remain neutral, 
unless we retire and wrap ourselves close in the 
mantle of indifference. Such as have a tempera- 
ment adapted to such a state of torpitude may 
congratulate themselves. For my part I do no: 
envy them. I cannot look on indifferently. For 
myself I must take one side or the other. We 
all must. The issue between these forces must 
be met and passed upon. Then let us, whilst in 
the vigor of our physical and intellectual strength, 
enter this conflict and by determining end V. It 
would be unmanly to defer it until the infirmiti< s 
of age shall have' disqualified us for the service, 
or to saddle our posterity with a task which our 
procrastination shall have rendered so much the 
more onerous. 

Those opposing forces are nothing more no- 
nothing less than the slave power on the one 
side, striving against its opponents on the other 
side for the ascendency. This slave power has 
assumed within the past few years most mighty 
proportions. From a domestic institution, regu- 
lated by local law, it has plunged to the very 
foundation of our Government, and usurped the 
place of Liberty, the corner-stone on which it 
was erected. It has soared to the summit of the 
arch which spans our Union, and proclaimed it- 
self the key-stone. Verily, " the stone which the 
builders rejected has become the head of the 
corner." 

I supposed our Revolutionary struggle, whic ) 
- caused a throb in every heart that loved liber- 
ty, and wrung a reluctant tribute even from dis- 
comfited oppression," had been presided over 
and directed by a different genius than the slave 
power would fain persuade us. I supposed that 
when that struggle for liberty was ended, and 
our forefathers, with the smell of the battle-field 
yet on their garments, laid the foundations of 
our government, and reared the superstructure 
thereon, which has been esteemed the palladium 
bf man's rights, meant it for what it seemed, ra- 
ther than for a citadel of refuge for him who lived 
and thrived upon man's wrongs. So you have 
also supposed. Have we been mistaken? If we 
have, let us submit- and end this strife. If we 
havf not, let us maintain the integrity of the 
trust committed to us by our forefathers, and 
show the world that the allegations of the slave 



power arc libels on their memory, as base as its 
assumptions are false and groundless, by shear- 
ing it of its high pretensions, curbing the range 
of its power, and defining a boundary beyond 
which it cannot pass. In fact, this slave power 
must be made subordinate to toleration, rather 
than suffered to be dominant over all restraint. 
A slave code may be necessary, but not for the 
encouragement of slavery, but for its limitation 
and regula'ion within its present limits. It must 
be told plainly and emphatically, so that there 
may be no misunderstanding or mistake, that 
within the States where it now exists, it shall re- 
main undisturbed by any interference from the 
free States, and that all the constitutional rights 
and immunities to which it is legally and justly 
entitled, shall be faithfully enforced and pre- 
served; and that beyond this it cannot and will 
not be suffered to go. 

Until the ascendency of Slavery is permanent- 
ly established, or its limits emphatically and de- 
finitely defined, there will be no rest from the 
agitation with which we are now afflicted; nei- 
ther can questions of the greatest moment to our 
country's welfare receive any attention what- 
ever, much less that attention which their import- 
ance demands. Then let us meet it manfully, 
but in, a spirit of kindness, justice, patriotism and 
philanthrophy. It may sorely try the strength 
of our Union, but sooner or later it must endure 
the test. If its endurance will not bear the set- 
tlement of questions which disturb and distract 
its harmony, let us know its weakness and suffer 
the consequences. "It is better to dwell in a 
corner of the house-top than with a brawling 
woman in a wide house." 

But to return to the subject of a coalition of 
Americans and Fillmore men with the Douglas 
men. I have said that it could not be formed 
satisfactorily, and if formed, it could not succeed. 
These objections to the formation of such a coali- 
tion, to most minds ought to be satisfactory. 
The probabilities of obtaining the end sought by 
the means proposed, are entirely too vague and 
uncertain to excuse what, to me, seems to be 
such an unnatural alliance. Stealing the livery 
of Heaven to serve the devil in, has been severe- 
ly rebuked. I do not see why stealing the livery 
of the devil to serve Heaven in, is not equally 
reprehensible. 

I have reflected much upon this subject of a 
coalition with the Douglas men, and however 
others may think of it, I cannot, with a due re- 
gard to a decent consistency with my humble 
aDd brief political career, nor as a man of honor, 
engage in what seems to me to be such a stupen- 
dous piece of political shysterism. Americans 
or Fillmore men who can sufficiently divest 
themselves of all considerations of consistency, 
principle, and honor, so as to engage in such an 
enterprise, are welcome to the laurels with 
which they shall wear even the crown of suc- 
cess. I will have no part or lot in the matter, 
and I assure you here, that but a very beggarly 
account of the Americans in the State of New 
York will. But suppose that the election is sent 
to the House, let us see what Mr. Bell's*chances 
are then. He has one vote, and only one, to 
start with. He can depend only upon that one 



vote. It requires seventeen to elect. Where are 
the remaining sixteen to come from 1 The 
strength of each candidate in the House is thus 
estimated by the New York Express : — Lincoln, 
15; Breckenridge, 12 ; Douglas. 1 ; Bell. 1 ; 
equally divided, 4. Now, where is Mr. Bell to 
get votes to elect him? None of the Brecken- 
ridge men will vote for him, for they confidently 
expect, in the event of the election going to the 
House, that Gen. Lane will be the next - Presi- 
dent Nothing is to be counted on from the four 
equally divided States. If Lincoln's fifteen and 
Douglas' one be given to Bell, that will elect 
him. But it is said that the Douglas State will 
vote for Lincoln. This gives him 16. Now this 
sixteen must go over to Bell to elect him, or the 
Bell State must go for Lincoln and elect him, to 
prevent the election of Gen. Lane, i What is most 
probable? What is most reasonable? Will the 
mountain go to the prophet? or will the prophet 
go to the mountain? Or will the Bell State take 
the ground, and excuse its obstinacy as that ju- 
ror did, whose reason for the disagreement of the 
jury of which he was one, was because there 
were eleven obstinate fellows who would not 
agree with him? Is it likely that fifteen or six- 
teen States will yield their opinions and preju- 
dices to one? No, it is not probable — hardly 
possible. Human nature is made of sterner stuff. 
We have but to look within our own breasts to 
be conscious of the fallacy of such a supposition. 
Would fifteen or sixteen of you Americans yield 
the election of the most insignificant officer to one 
Republican or democrat? You certainly would 
not. Much less would you yield the election of 
so high a functionary as a President ofthe United 
States, under similar circumstances. Then would 
fifteen or sixteen American States yield to the 
caprice of one Republican or one democratic 
State? They certainly would not. Can we ex- 
pect concessions from other men that we would 
not make ourselves? We must regard them at 
being as tenacious of their opinions as we are. 
B : S it is said the Republicans will not dare take 
the responsibility of suffering an election to fail 
in the House, in view of the election of Gen'l 
Lane in the Senate. This is assuming too much. 
There are men who act from conscientious mo- 
tives sufficiently strong to justify them in the 
performance of what they conceive to be a pre- 
sent duty, content to abide the consequences with 
those who disagree with them. If it be such a 
calamity to have Gen'l Lane elected President, 
what an overwhelming responsibility a single 
State would assume in suffering it to be done, 
when it could prevent it. It is plain, I think, 
which would he the more culpable in a case 
where sixteen men refused to act with one. or 
one with sixteen, to prevent what both esteemed 
an evil. 

It is further urged in favor of this coalition, 
that Bell and Everett will carry more States than 
Breckenridge and Lane, and that if the election 
go to the House and it fail to elect, then the Se- 
nate will be compelled to choose between Everett 
and Hamlin, in which event Mr. Everett would 
be elected. The conclusion may be correct, how- 
ever remote from the premises. But I doubt the 
correctness of the premises. I do not believe 



that Mr. Everett will get the next highest vote 
to Mr. Hamlin. There is no evidence of any 
such prospect All the evidence I have been 
able to gather leads me to a different conclusion. 
I have no faith in the slave States voting for Bell 
and Everett Those States shamefully deceived 
us in 185(i. and although somewhat differently 
circumstanced now, I have no expectation of any 
different result I attach no importance what- 
ever to the phase of the case, which is urged as 
favorable to Mr. Everett's election. 

If we should conclude to vote straight for Bell 
and Everett, we would have the gratification of 
knowing that we supported men eminently qual- 
ified for the offices, as well as tor men who are 
the first choice of some, at least, but of course 
without any hopes of success. 

If, on the other hand we should conclude to 
act affirmatively and to a purpose, the way is 
clear to me. There is a party whose platform of 
principles, save one resolution, conforms in all 
respects with my views as to what should be the 
policy of this country in reference to the subjects 
involved. And that resolution I believe to have 
been inserted, rather as a matter of policy for the 
present, than as a fundamental principle. There- 
fore I am willing to hold my objections to it in 
abeyance, for the time being, as well as to for- 
give the spirit in which I suspect it to have been 
introduced. 

Upon that platform I see gathered vastly the 
greatest number of my political friends, as well 
as many of my personal friends; — friends by 
whose wisdom I have been instructed, and by 
whose counsel I have been profited. There I 
have no doubt we all would find more affinity, 
viii principle, than in any other political associa- 
tion without the pale of our own. That party 
has already inaugurated some of the reforms 
which were principles embraced in our political 
creed, and it has given its sanction to others, 
which, if carried out. would go a great length to- 
wards accomplishing the aims of our political 
action. On the other hand, the opposite of this 
party repudiates, denounces, and condemns these 
reforms, as well as every principle of our politi- 
cal faith; branding us, as a party, and as indi- 
viduals, as intolerant, prescriptive, and radically 
wrong'. We all. individually and collectively, as 
Americans, are marked by the orthodox democ- 
racy as unworthy of confidence or respect politi- 
cally, and consequently unfit for any place of 
public trust. What kind of metamorphosis an 
American can subject himself to. so as to find 
any political affinity there. I cannot imagine. 

Let us take a hasty view of our own party 
forces a*nd position. Around the smouldering 
embers of our once glowing camp-fires, a faithful 
tew still continue to gather. Here and there a 
solitary sentinel is seen at his post, reminding us 
that there are yet a few Americans on guard. 
And although all is still throughout that once 
vast camp, where but lately the feet of near a 
million trod, in that camp there yet remains a 
band, small in numbers but efficient in service, 
and although impotent in separate action, yet 
powerful as an all v. The gorgeous ensign of the 
Union still floats from its flag-staff. Without is 
heard the din and roar of battle. The striving 



forces are in view. Drawn up in formidable ar- 
ray, on one side is seen a mighty host, on whose 
banner glares the startling motto — Slavery and 
Slavery extension. Amongst that host these 
may be discerned, by close scrutiny, a band of, 
fierce and treasonable spirits, bearing, as yet but 
half unfurled, the black flag of disunion. < >u the 
other side may be seen a more mighty host whose 
banners, waving in the breeze, disclose the mot- 
to—Slavery restriction— civil and religious lib- 
erty. The conflict is about to begin. Shall this 
patriot band remain within its camp, indifferent 
spectators and reckless of the issue'.' Or shall i. 
sally forth, and engage as allies on the side of 
justice, philanthropy and the light? 

There was a time when your speaker's voice 
was listened to in that camp with some degree of 
consideration, and his counsel was regarded of 
some avail in doubtful questions. And whether 
you will hear or whether you will forbear, his 
voice and counsel now is— to seize that gorgeous 
ensign of ours — let it be high advanced — rally 
around it all true American hearts — add in the 
van of the oppressed against the oppressor, let 
the gathering cry be — God and the rujht — Lincoln 
and victory .' 



[ From the Buffalo Commercial Advertiser, Aug. 6.] 

GREAT LINCOLN RALLY!!! 



Hon. Geo. R. Babcock Declares for Lincoln] 



Kremlin Hall on Saturday evening, was dens- 
ly packed at an early hour with enthusiastic Re- 
publicans, who flocked thither at the bare an- 
nouncement of the name of the distinguished 
speakers who had been invited to address them. 
Large delegations were present from the country 
towns, notwithstanding this is the busiest season 
of the year with farmers, and the enthusiasm on 
all Bides was unbounded. Long before the hour 
for speaking arrived, the Hall became so crowd- 
ed that preparations for an out door organiza- 
tion became necessary, and measures were taken 
accordingly to satisfy the assembled thousands 
who were unable to obtain admittance into the 
Hall. The spirit of 1840 was fully aroused, and 
the sentiment which prevailed was a sure omen 
of victory. Among those in attendance we 
noticed a large number of Old-Line Whigs, sup- 
porters of Mr. Fillmore in 1856. who appeared 
to relish, with the keenest zest, Mr. ("ovode's 
scorching exposure of Democratic misrule and 
corruption. 

Hon. Geo. R. Babcock was unanimously 
elected President of the meeting, and took the 
chair amidst enthusiastic cheering. Order being 
restored, 

Mr. Babcock proceeded briefly to addre-s 
the meeting. He said he had taken a pa ' 
a year or two since in the St. James Hall Union 
movement in opposition to the so-called democ- 
racy. He had also presided over a meeting in 
this same hall not long since in opposition to the 
administration of James Bichanan. We had 
now. however, arrived at a period when some- 
thins: more than local and state affairs were at 



6 



stake *■ change in the National Administra- 
tion bad' become absolutely necessary. The best 
evidence of this was that all parties said so. He 
felt some regret at the idea of parting with his 
old American friends, but his duty called upon 
him to act for the best interests of his country, 
and in obedience to that call he should give his 
support to Abraham Lincolx. (Loud ap- 
plause. ) Some of his friends-he did not know 
\,„ v many— differed with him in this respect, and 
would support Messrs. Bell and Everett.— 
This he regarded as but another way ot sup- 
porting Mr. Douglas. This he (Mr. Babcock) 
could not do. He would not regret to see Mr. 
Bell chosen President, but he could see no 
hope for him. The contest was clearly between 
I i'schta and Douglas in this state, and while 
he admired the pluck of the latter, it was enough 
for him to know that Douglas was the author ot 
ili«- repeal of the Missouri Compromise, which 
had proved a perfect Pandora's box of evil to 
the country. No true friend of Henry Clay 
should ever forgive him for this act, Yet Mr. 
DduGLAsbad the impudence to appeal to the 
friends of that illustrious statesman for their 
support The whole life of Henrt Clay was 
one complete record against the policy advo- 
cated by Mr. Douglas, and nothing but the 
most bare-faced assurance could ever have in- 
duced him (Douglas) to go about the country 
making stump-speeches, and endeavoring to 
prove that Henrt Clay and Daniel Webster 
were his supporters. Mr. Babcock said he had 
i othing to say in regard to the motives of those 
i f his old associates who differed with him m re- 
gard to the wisdom of his course, but he thought 
they were mistaken to say the least, He had 
carefully studied the character and speeches ot 
Mr Lincoln, and he gave it as his deliberate 
.pinion that he is one of the ablest as well as 
, he Of the most conservative statesmen ot the 
day, (applause,) and eminently worthy oi the 
support of all good men. 



[From the Buffalo Commercial Advertiser, May 26.] 
THE AMERICAN PARTY OF ^E^V YORK 



Its Past Position — Its Present Duty. 



In 1856 the American party presented an Elec- 
toral ticket in e\erv State in the Union. In all 
sections, North and South, it had an organization 
and enthusiasm. In 1858, of all the Northern 
States, only New York could claim to possess a 
distinctive' American party. In New England 
the Republican party was so impregnated with 
Americanism as to draw to itself naturally the 
greater portion of the vote. In Pennsylvania 
and New Jersey the People's Tarty absorbed 
both Americans' and Republicans, and the two 
acted together in entire harmony. Elsewhere at 
the North, with the before-stated exception of 
New York, there was no American party. It 
was merged, lost, abandoned in two greater and 
more powerful organizations. 

\i the South, Americanism was but the name 
under which the old Whigs rallied. The Whig 



party had gone down irrevocably, but its ele- 
ments still lived ; and the Southern opposition, 
under the name, but with few of the peculiar 
tenets of Americanism, acted together as such in 
the maintainance of a separate organization, the 
leading object of which— the only test of parti- 
zanship— was hatred of a corrupt National Ad- 
ministration. 

Recurring again to the fact that the Americans 
of New York stood alone at the North, we turn 
now to the reasons which actuated this persist- 
ence in an organization which had no affirmative 
power, and which, with each successive election, 
lessened its numbers and decreased its influence. 
Did the New York Americans differ in then- 
views of national policy from those of New 
Eno-land, Pennsylvania or New Jersey ? Not at 
all. Why, then, could the party in those localities 
merge itself and act harmoniously with the Re- 
publicans, while here it was compelled to— or 
did— stand aloof and refuse all alliance ? W as 
there a letting down and abandonment of prin- 
ciple on the part of our friends in other States ? 
It has never been so charged ; and we of New- 
York could not consistently make such an accusa- 
tion, for in 1858 we sought earnestly, arid with 
great unanimity, for a similar alliance with Re- 
publicans. The State Council at Albany,' in 
August, 1858, fully discussed the subject. It 
was" then proclaimed, and the formal action of 
the Council also affirmed it, that there was no 
sufficient difference of opinion between Ameri- 
cans and Republicans in this State, to warrant 
the continuance of two separate parties. On the 
Sth of September, iu the same year, the Repub- 
lican and the American State Conventions, both 
in session at Syracuse, appointed Committees of 
Conference, to devise a plan of union. Those 
committees met, consulted, agreed upon a plat- 
form. A few brief resolutions were found suffi- 
cient to embody in one creed the doctrines of the 
two organizations on all matters of National poli- 
ty On State affairs their views were identical. 
The committee from the American Convention 
reported their action, and the Convention endors- 
ed and approved it. In the Republican Conven- 
tion trickery and fraud obtained the mastery. 
By a bold and impudent cheat, the resolutions 
were referred without reading, and another set 
passed, with the understanding, on the part oi 
the majority of the delegates, that they embodied 
the Conference Resolutions. Of course this end- 
ed the Union. Separate tickets were nominated, 
and the Americans of this State plunged again 
into a gallant but hopeless contest under their 
old flag. , ^ 

It is time to pause here and look back to some 
assertion of the real views of the Americans of 
New York on the question of Slavery. So far 
as this paper is concerned, its policy has, we be- 
li.we. been distinctively American ; so much so 
that we have been denounced in the most bitter 
terms, and with endless repetition, as actually 
pro-Slavery in our tendencies. Let us see what 
these views were. In April, 1857, the Buffalo 
Commercial Advertiser came under its present 
proprietorship and control. The change render- 
ed a formal expression of opinion necessary; and 
one was accordingly made on the 4th ot April, 



1857, in the following distinct and positive 
terms: 

" Slavery is a question that must be met by 
every journalist who aims to direct or reflect pub- 
lic opinion, it cannot be overlooked and ignored. 
Neutrality in respect to it has become impossi- 
ble. It is unfortunate that the question has been 
agitated with the fierce zeal we have witnessed 
on both sides, for the peace of the country has 
been put in peril thereby, and the solution made 
more difficult. But we must take facts as they 
are. The question has been raised, it intensely 
exercises the public mind, and nothing in our 
opinion, is clearer than that it will continue to do 
so until the policy of the government in respect 
to it is definitely settled. For ourselves, we are 
free to say that, while recognizing to the fullest 
extent the right and power of each State to adopt 
and maintain such domestic and municipal insti- 
tutions as it may deem fit, provided they be in 
accordance with the Constitution of the United 
States, we do not wish to see any extension of 
Slavery beyond its present limits, and would 
council resistance to it by all lawful and consti- 
tutional means. 

" Entertaining these views we would join in no 
fanatical crusade against Slavery, or the abuse 
of those who uphold it. We deplore its existence 
and would resist by all proper means its exten- 
sion, but would leave it within its present limits 
to die by natural causes. 7 ' 

Such were our views three years ago ; they 
have never changed since, nor can the most care- 
ful reader of our columns find that there has been 
change or shadow of turning from them. It is a 
curious comment upon the vagaries of political 
discussion, that holding fast to these opinions we 
have been called pro-Slavery advocates. 

And now to the interpretation of all this. 
Why was it that no union was effected ? Why 
was an internecine war continued so fiercely ? 
Why should men with views so nearly identical, 
rank as enemies ? 

When the flag of Union was raised iu Erie 
County in 1858. U carried triumph with it. The 
two parties blended into one in all their local 
affairs, and a degree of honor and good faith was 
maintained, highly creditable to both. In the 
State it was otherwise. Circumstances had 
placed us in strong and decided antagonism 
to the Regency at Albany, We knew that it 
was unfaithful to the Canals ; that it had betrayed 
the interests of Western New York especially ; 
that on occasion as in 1857, it did not hesitate to 
immolate the candidates of its own party to carry 
out its selfish aims ? that it was corrupt beyond 
expression, and so open and bold in thai corrup- 
tion as to be a curse to the cause it claimed to 
represent But we were told that to this Regen- 
cy we must bow the knee, and the most insulting 
language was addressed to us again and again 
by its Central Organ. Self-respect, the defence 
of personal rights, the privilege of protest against 
outrageous wrong, all joined in forbidding us to 
become a consenting party to the plunderous de- 
signs of a Regency so infamous. 

Naturally, entertaining such feelings, we felt 
suspicious of all who were the especial candidates 



or favorites of the Regency. To this suspicion 
Gov. Morgan became subject. Never did we 
more heartily or honestly oppose a public man ; 
and never were we more thoroughly ami happily 
disappointed. Always anxious to he fair and 
even generous towards Republicans; we yielded 
with joy to the conviction, at last, that the Gu- 
bernatorial Chair was occupied by an honest and 
sagacious statesman. And when we found a ma- 
jority of the late Assembly standing by the great 

interests of the revenue of the State and refusing 

the dictation of him who had been the "Gover- 
nor of Governors" we suffered no ancient spite 
to control (air action, but hailed the triumph of 
principle ever selfish ends. 

Mr. Lincoln's nomination stood out free from 
these influences. It was won by the honest en- 
thusiasm of his friends. It guarantees executive 
honesty. It assures us that no bargains have 
been made, no greedy disposition of the spoils 
already accomplished. His principles are our 
principles. We only differ from Republicans in 
the relative importance attached to the Slavery 
issue and in having perhaps a larger faith in the 
final triumph of the right. Thus holding, thus 
satisfied of the honesty of the party with which 
we act, we are unreserved in our support of 
Lincoln and Hamlin. 



[ From the Buffalo Commercial Advertiser. July 10.] 

A Talk With Our Friends in the Country 

Towns. 



We are aware that many of our allies in the 
old Whig or American ranks still hesitate as to 
where their path of duty lies in the pending 
Presidential campaign. While we are led to be- 
lieve that the large majority of them sanction 
our course in coming to the support of Lincoln 
and Hamlin, we are still far from indifferent to 
the fact that others, with an honorable fondness 
for old associations, as yet decline to join us. and 
are awaiting the result of affairs yet a little 
longer before finally deciding as to whom they 
will sustain. And we are well aware that this 
class are, in the true sense of the word, conserv- 
ative ; that they will not lend their aid to a sec- 
tional organization ; that their action is based 
upon reason and principle, and is not influenced 
by local or personally ambitious consideration. 
While we find in the city of Buffalo a few nom- 
inal Americans who look upon what remains of 
that organization as a fair subject for trade, and 
who hardly hesitate to avow that their support 
is to be given where the best offer is made ; wo 
are confident that both in city and country, the 
masses, those who for fen years have struggled 
in hopeless minorities, asking no offices, caring 
for no personal gain, though they may hesitate 
for a time will decide at last, conscientiously anil 
without reference to political bargains or sales. 
To such we feel impelled to address ourselves, 
to explain, fully and frankly, our own bourse, 
present the arguments that have influenced us 
atid ask the aid and co-operation, now, in a time 
of strength and victory, of those with whom we 
have endured a long catalogue of disasters and 



defeats. And first we ask thein, in view of the 
magnitude of the issue, to cast aside such local 
ill feelings as they may have. Admit if you 
choose, that in your town or county matters y'ou 
have been sometimes wronged and betrayed by 
Republicans, and that your offers of conciliation 
have been rejected. These things happen, we 
believe, wherever human nature exists. In all 
political parties it is not unusual for cliques to 
obtain an ascendancy, and certain it is that we 
can point to the Union movement iu this county. 
made up, though it was, of parties warring 
against each other in State and National relations, 
and consequently subjected to great embarras- 
ments, as more fairly and honorably conducted 
than has been the internal policy of the Demo- 
cratic party during the same time. Among 
Democrats, oth in county and State, a single 
influence overshadows the masses, a single clique 
distributes the offices and honors, and the only 
track to power is a railroad track. No man who 
has dared to raise his voice against that clique 
can hope for position or recognition in the Demo- 
cratic ranks. 

Looking, then, at these loeal differences as in- 
separable from all political action, and not to be 
avoided in any party, we call upon you to gov- 
ern your course by other and higher motives, as- 
sured that in the end it will be in all respects the 
better policy. 

Whom will you support ? What candidate is 
most in accordance with your principles ? And 
can you by voting for him do him or yourselves 
any practical good ? Expediency, though often 
sneered at, is, after all, only another, name for 
practicality. Doubtless Bell and Everett are 
the candidates having the strongest claim upon 
your sympathies. Their platform is in their po- 
litical history, and that you approve. If a vote 
were a mere expression of opinion, a declaration 
of principle you eould come nearest your pri- 
vate sentiments by voting for them. But a vote 
• is something else. It is not a principle, not ne- 
cessarily an expression of principle, but an en- 
gine of power by which you endeavor to produce 
certain results in harmony with your principles. 
In using it you should endeavor to make it prac- 
tical, to do the most good for the principle, and 
not to make it a mere empty word of approval, a 
compliment to men who are not to be benefitted 
by it. Now, will a vote for Bell and Everett 
be anything more or less than this ? Your field 
of action is in New York, and you know that by 
no possibility can Johx Bell secure the electo- 
ral vote of this State. In voting for him you as- 
sume the position of a neutral in the war, and 
that when your positive action is needed, when 
a vote for John Bell is half a vote for the de- 
mocratic party. Compare your own position 
with that of the Republicans of Maryland. They 
will vote for Johx Bell, not because they pre- 
fer him to Lincoln, but because they wish to do 
some active good in the campaign. And were 
we in Maryland we should look upon a vote cast 
fori Lincoln there as quite as impolitic as a vote 
for Bell here. It is purely a question of locali- 
ty. The opposition has three wings — the Repub- 
lican party north, the Union party south, and 
the People's party in Pennsylvania, New Jersey 

/ 



and Delaware. These three are one in their 
main purposes. The first and last act togethei 
now; the union of the second with them is a dead 
certainty after the 4th of March next. 

We have not alluded as yet to the possibility 
of your voting for Douglas or Breckenridoe. 
We do not see how you can do so in honor or 
with any degree of consistency. In all matters 
of local or State policy, canals, railroads, the 
power of corporate monopolies and the numer- 
ous questions which affect your taxation at home, 
and the development of the resources of the 
Empire State, you are diametrically opposed to 
the democracy. To you, practically, these ques- 
tions are far more important than that of Slave- 
ry. You can not honorably aid in placing demo- 
crats in power against the best interests of the 
County of Erie. 

But on the Slavery issue how near are you to 
Douglas ? You support the compromise of 
1850. Ten years have proved their wisdom. — 
Four years after their enactment, Mr. Dou;las. 
actuated by motives either purely selfish or 
purely subservient to Southern aggression, in- 
troduced and carried through Congress the Kan- 
sas-Nebraska bill, which your leader, Mr. Fill- 
more, has strongly characterized as the Pando- 
ra's box of evil. Under the wise and prudent 
administration of Mr. Fillmore, aided by the 
last grand energies of the dying Clay, the Sla- 
very question was adjusted on a fair and honor- * 
able basis, accepted by both the Whig and Dem- 
ocratic parties in 1852. Mr. Douglas, whether 
to break the force of the then rapidly growing 
American sentiment, or for his own ambition. 
re-opened the whole issue, spread new dissen- 
sions, broke the peace which Mr. Fillmore had 
ratified, plunged the country in a fierce excite- 
ment, and reddened the plains of Kansas with 
blood. Will you now reward him for this? Thank 
him for crushing out Americanism by the Kansas 
excitment ? Will you vote to forward a policy 
which makes this quarrel eternal, takes it out of 
the hands and power of Congress, and refers it 
to the fierce passions of a frontier people, with- 
out law or authority to guide thtm, and compels 
them to resort to civil war as the only practical 
arbitrament ? 

As to Breckexridge, there is at least in him 
a prospect of the settlement of the Slavery is- 
sue. He wipes it out by the sacrifice of all the 
rights of the North, by enthroning southern sec- 
tionalism and establishing Slavery, with all its 
vast consequences, social and political, upon the 
domain we have conquered in the name of 
Liberty. 

But Lincoln, you fear, is sectional.— support- 
ed by a geographical party. Will it be geo- 
graphical when he is elected ? Must he not then 
have a party at the South, and is it not ready 
made to his hand in the Union organization ? — 
In a month after his election, when Southern 
conservatives are in his cabinet, when Southern 
Whig statesmen in House and Senate support his 
policy, when Southern men are raised to high 
offices and are scattered all over the Slave States 
to defend and support the grand old Union of 
which he is the Representative man, where will 
be your geographical party then ? Cannot yon 







a^t with some faith in the future, some fore- 
sight, some perception of the inevitable course 
of events ? The cry of disunion has already 
ceased at the South, and the people of that re- 
gion are avowedly reconciling themselves to 
Lincoln's election. 

And why should they not ? Lincoln only 
echoes Henry Clay, when, in his noble speech 
of Feb. <>, 1850, the old Whig champion declared 
in the United States Senate — ''Sir, I have said 
that I never could vote for it, and I repeat that I 
never can and never will vote for it ; and no 
earthly power shall ever make me vote to plant 
Slavery where Slavery does not exist !" Two 
weeks later, on the 20th of February, 1850, he 
said again in the same arena: 

" From the earliest moment when I could con- 
sider the institution of slavery. I have held, and 
I have said, from that day down to the present, 
again and again, and I shall go to the grave with 
the opiuion, that it is an evil, a social and politi- 
cal evil, and that it is a wrong as it respects 
those who are subject to the institution of slave- 
ry-" 

Friends ! What Henry Clay said then, in 
that most alarming struggle of sections, may be 
said now. If not, if we are to be so choked 
down by abject fear as not to dare to repeat the 
words of our gallant old leader, then have we 
fallen on evil times. Lincoln is the follower of 
Clay. He sucked in the milk of his political gos- 
pel from that most honored statesman, and we 
at least, and yon we believe, will rally to the 
support of a man who so nearly represents the 
author of the American svstem. 



THE DUTY OF CONSERVATIVES. 



SPEECH OF 

HON. JAMES O.PUTNAM, 

In Reply to Ex-Gov. Hunt, 

Delivered before the Great Republican Mass 
Meeting at Lockport, July 19th, 1^60. 



It was a saying of Pericles, that at Athens no 
man was thought to be a good citizen who did 
not take an interest in public affairs. The senti- 
ment is as true in America to-day as it was two 
thousand years ago in the politest city of Greece. 
Great principles and reforms which* look to the 
renovation of institutions, must in free govern- 
ments seek party organization for their advance- 
ment And until the nature of man is changed, 
there will at times be heat, and bitterness, and 
injustice, in the struggles for ascendency of op- 
posing opinions. We may lament over it, we 
may retire in sadness or disgust from the conflict, 
but it will go on, with us or without us. The 
conflict of the new Idea, which comes leaping 
from the Orient, hopeful as youth, and eager 
as the coursers of the sun, to contest the Empire 
of the old, is in its very nature, " irrepressible," 



until the victory is lost or won. We must go 
outside of free governments to find political quiet. 
Despotism is a state of repose. Older reigns at 
Warsaw and Vienna. But would we exchange 
for the Dead Sea where all political vitality dies. 
where individual man is nothing and the govern- 
ment everything, our stormy Atlantic of Freedom, 
on whose turbulent bosom rides the Ark of civil 
and religious Liberty? The unreflective may 
not be able to see it, but for two hundred years 
the Anglo-Saxon mind in both hemispheres lias 
been engaged in a constant war of ideas, whose 
issues are the most cherished records of History. 

We are now in the midst of one of the most 
earnest of those struggles. Is the system of free 
labor a failure? Is capital absolute king? Is 
Slavery the necessary foundation of a permanent 
civilization? And if so, shall we tear down the 
fair structure reared by our Fathers, and build 
over again, upon the corner stone which they 
rejected? 

These are the issues. They present themselves 
in every form of discussion and in every variety 
of political movement. The Republican party 
says affirmatively, the old idea is the best. It is 
organized to maintain it. It must justify itself 
to the judgment of the country, or it must go 
down. Its idea must either conquer or be con- 
quered. I address myself to defend the justice 
of the Republican thought, and of its organiza- 
tion. Its injustice has recently been ably argued 
here by a distinguished citizen of your own. A 
gentleman with whom I have the kindest rela- 
tions personally, and to whose elevation to the 
highest honors of the State. I have always gladly 
lent my aid. Governor Hunt has with Ms usual 
ability covered the whole ground of " conserva- 
tive " opposition to the Republican party. — 
ground not unfamiliar to me. While I review 
his position freely, though I trust kindly, he will 
remember that with us the feeblest man may test 
the logical armor of the strongest. 

But let me not pass by the charming philoso- 
phy which forms the graceful portal of the Gov- 
ernor's speech. He speaks of the joys of private 
life, its studies, its freedom, its friendships, de- 
lights which far transcend the stormy raptures of 
a public career. He has drank keep of that foun- 
tain, and can well contrast its gilded emptiness 
with the rich pleasures of retirement. My expe- 
rience amid cares of state, does not reach a tithe 
of his, but far enough to lead me to accord with 
his sentiment. And yet I am not quite sure, that 
we altogether know ourselves. In nothing do 
mankind more delude themselves than by this 
very philosophy, which they invoke in their se- 
clusion. The inconsistency of our nature in this 
regard, has been the sport "of satirists from Hor- 
ace to Cowper. Who will ever forgot that has 
read, the picture by the poet of Olney, of the 
Statesman who, 

Sick of a thousand disappointed aims, 

resolves to experience the bliss of retirement — 
He flees from public cares to rural shades, and 
for a time is happy. But opportunity at length 
finds him less content than he supposed. He 
feels, 



10 



A secret thirst of bis renounced employs, 
Blames his own indolence, observes though late, 
'Tis criminal to leave a sinking State; • 
Flies to the levse. and received with grace, 
Kneels, kisses hands, and shines again in place. 

u Lead us not into temptation," is the prayer 
alike for philosopher and peasant, • 

The first point I notice is the declaration of the 
Governor, that Mr. Lincoln, if elected, " will be 
so by the Free States alone." " And this would 
be a long stride toward disunion." In other 
words, such an election would place the integrity 
of the Union in infinite peril. Admit for a mo- 
ment his premises, and let us see how he would 
remedy the difficulty. He would transfer the 
election from three millions of voters in a way 
appointed by the Constitution, and to which the 
people are accustomed, and to whose results they 
have for more than eighty years, however embit- 
tered was the contest, submitted with entire and 
instant loyalty, to a general scramble among 
three hundred politicians at Washington. " It is 
not to be desired," he says, "that a President 
should be chosen by the electoral colleges, unless 
the electors fairly represent a majority of the - 
people of the United States. Such an election 
would not be in accordance with the spirit of the 
federal constitution or the cardinal principle of 
republican government." 

If this be true, our Fathers made a great mis- 
take in permitting it. They thought the plural- 
ity decision much better than the Washington 
raffle, or they would by Constitutional appoint- 
ment have transferred the election to Congress at 
once, on failure of a majority to elect. Gover- 
nor Hunt does not agree with the Fathers. But 
what is his objection: "It could not be consid- 
ered an embodiment of the national will in any 
true sense." 

Undoubtedly it is better if a majority can agree, 
that the President should be their choice, but 
such is the diversity of human views, that with- 
out the plurality rule the whole machinery of our 
Government would soon be blocked up. 

But how does the Governors rule better the 
matter? Allow the Presidency to be made an 
object of scramble by two or three hundred Wash- 
ington politicians who may make President the 
man who is the choice of the smallest or largest 
minority of the people? If it would be "a long 
stride toward disunion " to make Lincoln Presi- 
dent by a million and a half votes, mostly from the 
Northern States, would the danger diminish by 
electing Mr. Bell in Congress, who shall be the 
expressed choice of not to exceed a half million 
voters, and they mostly from the Southern States? 
If so, would it not be the perfection of President 
making, taking not a stride of a hair's breadth 
'• toward disunion," to have no election at all by 
a large plurality of the people or by the two or 
three hundred members of Congress, but let it 
go to the Senate, and then, as would be the cer- 
tain result, let less than fifty men make Mr. Lane 
President, who will not be the expressed choice 
in the canvass of a single man throughout the 
length and breadth of this land? The logic of 
the Governor's position is about this: It'is very 
dangerous to have the people at large make a 
ProsiJuiit by a plurality vote, but it is very safe 



to allow the prize-ring at Washington to make a 
President of the man who is the choice of the least 
number of voters, and the very perfection of safe- 
ty if it shall fall to the man who was the choice 
of nobody at all! 

History, as well as logic is against the Gover- 
nor. We have had one election of President by 
the House of Representatives, that of Adams. 
A combination was made between the friends of 
Mr. Adams and Mr. Clay, which resulted in the 
choice of a minority candidate. What was the 
result? The completest overthrow of the Admin- 
istration of Adams, death to Mr. Clay's presiden- 
tial prospects forever. It ruined everybody who 
had anything to do with what was falsely stig- 
matized as the " bargain and corruption." You 
say this was the trick of politicians. No matter, 
they made the people believe it, and the entrance 
of Clay and Adams to power was their passage 
under an iron yoke which galled them to their 
graves. The lying echoes of " bargain and cor- 
ruption " against those incorruptible men, have 
hardly yet died away upon our ears. It was the 
wild, savage howl of revenge based upon the 
seeming injustice of electing a minority candidate 
over Jackson, the plurality candidate. There is 
a Nemesis in politics. I commend to the Govern- 
or the study of her character. She is wild and 
irregular in her career, as she is certain and ter- 
rible in her judgments. 

At this point let me express my opinion as to 
the position conservative men of the opposition 
should assume. I speak not dogmatically, but I 
do speak as a man who naturally prefers the 
middle path to the extreme remedy. We tried 
to overthrow the Democratic party and its policy 
in 1S56, under circumstances much more favor- 
able than the present for a middle ground candi- 
date. Mr. Fillmore stood ten chances for an elec- 
tion to where Mr. Bell stands one. To vote for 
Bell and Everett in this State is neutrality. 

To vote for Douglas with the view of defeating 
Lincoln, and thus to throw the election into the 
House of Representatives with the hope of secur- 
ing a chance for Mr. Bell's election, is to run the 
risk of certain defeat to everybody but Lane — 
whose election would be an untried experiment. 
I do not say " it would be a long stride toward 
disunion*' You do more. You take the most 
direct course to embitter and alienate men who 
are the most natural allies with Mr. Bell's friends 
South, and to thwart what is in the end inevitable 
if fair play is the game — a united opposition. 

Now, I say, the only rational combination that 
can be made, if the electiou goes into the House 
and the canvass is fairly conducted — the only one 
that could last one hour, the only one that could 
lift the election of the President above the most 
sordid bargaining and huckstering for office, 
which would defile every man who dirtied his 
hands with the business, would be a combination 
of the friends of Lincoln and Bell in the present 
Congress, if there is no election by the people. 

And if either of those gentlemen are elected 
by the House, he will be by such a combination 
and no other. Any other is morally impossible. 
Why, who are the friends of Bell and Everett in 
the Southern States? Men who their life time 
have contested every inch of ground with the 



11 



Democratic party. Men who, with the great 
mass of Republicans at the North, stood side by 
side from 1824 to 1856. Men who with them had 
a common political faith, common altars and a 
common leader. Men who loved Henry Clay 
while living, who interposed their hearts between 
him and the poisoned shafts of his foes for a 
quarter of a century, and who now make common 
pilgrimages with them to his grave to unite in a 
common worship of his memory. Who are the 
Democrats of the South arrayed for Breckenridge 
or Douglas, as they belong either to the York or 
Lancastrian Houses? Men who have always 
been on the blood hound chase for John Bell. — 
Men whose lives have been devoted to hunting 
down every name sacred .to the old Whig party 
of the South. Can there be any natural alliance 
between such antagonism engendered by the 
strifes and hates of two generations? Cau John 
Bell and John J. Crittenden shake hands in po- 
litical amity with the butchers of Henry Clay? 
If it can be so, I would cease to have any faith 
in man, and Would agree that the day of chivalry 
and manhood had gone, and that of the falsest 
images of God had succeeded. 

There are other points of affinity betwoen these 
two sections of the opposition. Mr. Bell resisted 
the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and op- 
posed all the succeeding iniquities of the Admin- 
istration. And in relation to slavery itself, Mr. 
Bell stands where Mr. Clay stood. He does not, 
I believe, regard slavery a necessary and divine 
institution — nor does he esteem our Northern 
system of free labor a failure. I do not pretend 
that he is up to the Republican idea, but I say 
he and his friends are much nearer to it than is 
either branch of the Southern Democracy. 

Now. in view of these facts, I say Northern 
conservatives who wish tp overthrow the demo- 
cratic dynasty, should act affirmatively and being 
in a Northern State where a vote for Bell can 
help nobody, should unite with an opposition 
that can strike an effective blow. The same line 
of argument is applicable to show that if Lincoln 
is elected by the people, and there be affiliation 
with any large body at the South, it must be with 
Mr. Bell's friends. 

But suppose, in view of the hopelessness of 
serving Mr. Bell, by a direct vote for him in this 
State, you are tempted to vote for the man you 
hold responsible for all our present evils, Mr. 
Douglas, with the view of taking the election in- 
to the House, how much better are you off if it 
works to your will? Suppose Lincoln and Bell, 
and Douglas or Breckenridge. the three candi- 
dates, and the struggle begun in Congress. Mr. 
Hell has two small States, and Mr. Lincoln fif- 
teen great Northern States, and the Democratic 
States anxious to carry the election into the Sen- 
ate. You cannot, on principle, combine with 
the disuniouists. That would be degradation 
indeed. Then your only chance is to get the 
votes of the Republican States now in Congress 
represented. And do you suppose the fifteen 
States, backed by a million and a half votes, will 
go to your two States backed throughout the 
L'nion by not to exceed a half million votes? — 
Would the mountain go to Mahomet? Would 
the Republicans thus consent to " thwart the pub- 



lic will?" Never, never. The serious proposi- 
tion of such a thing would shock no man more 
than Governor Hunt. He would, at the firsl in- 
timation of so stupendous a wrong, fly to Wash- 
ington with the speed of light. He would say 
to those gentlemen, "My dear Mr. Bell, my dear 
Mr. Everett, don't, I beseech you, consent to 
this wrong — this violence to the great principle 
of the right of the majority to govern. Perish 
credit, perish commerce, perish every cabinet 
office, perish every foreign mission. Let this 
Capitoline Hill, with all its glorious historic as- 
sociations, and all its artistic splendor, sink for- 
ever from our sight, rather than such violence be 
done to the spirit of the Constitution." 

You see what result most follow. 

The two States that Mr. Bell's friends can con- 
trol, would at once ground arms, and like pat- 
riots march over to the fifteen Republican States, 
and elect Lincoln — the only possible election 
that can be made by the House. Then act af- 
firmatively now, and being in a Northern State 
unite with an opposition that can strike an effect- 
ual blow. 

But Gov. Hunt, recognizing the general fact, 
that a Lincoln Administration, if it has a large 
and powerful party at the South, must naturally 
find it from the ranks of Mr. Bell's friends, in 
other words, from the ancient Whigs in the South, 
sees a formidable difficulty in the way. He says 
that, 

" Before accepting office or lending any sup- 
port to a President chosen by the North alone. 
the friends of the Union in the South would dic- 
tate their own terms. They would require a dis- 
tinct pledge that the power and influence of the 
Administration should be employed to suppress- 
the slavery agitation and to restore friendly re- 
lations between the two sections." 

Here I would like the Governor to define terms. 
What does he mean by " suppressing agitation?' 7 
Does he mean that the Administration shall carry 
out Douglas' new sedition law? That it shall 
break up abolition societies at the North, and 
Yancey conventions at the South? That it shall 
muzzle the anti-slavery and pro-slavery press, 
and impose silence upon any single man or wo- 
man or child, who in the Whole country may 
please to talk, calmly or madly, wisely or like a 
fool, on the subject of slavery? Shall it agree to 
put Charles O'Conor in the stocks if he shall 
again declare slavery to be the normal and just 
condition of the negro? If yea, no such terms 
can be made. Thirty millions of people are 
strong, but not strong enough to silence the 
speech of the humblest citizen who at the North 
pleases to "agitate" by wagging his tongue or 
yielding his pen. But grant this is not what he 
means, yet until all this be done, there will be 
•• agitation." 

Does he mean that the Republican Governors 
shall not " agitate " by discussing the slavery 
question in their messages? That he does not 
mean, for he always, and ably, discussed them 
in his annual State papers. 

Then he must mean this : That he and his 
friends would exact pledges of Mr. Lincoln's Ad- 
ministration, that it would not advise or partici- 
pate in the formation of any laws, or in the exe- 



12 



cution of any policy, which should interfere with 
the settled Constitutional rights of the South. — 
That it would not enter upon a crusade upon its 
domestic peace. Now my first reply is, the Re- 
publican party is fully committed by its Chicago 
platform, to all this; and my second, that Abra- 
ham Lincolm has to otfer the sentiments and ac- 
tions of bis whole life as the only pledge he would 
ever give, or that John Bell would ever ask, that 
his Administration would be just to every section 
and every interest of the country. 

John Bell and his Southern friends would 
scorn, I can tell Governor Hunt, to ask any other 
pledges. To do so would be an insult that would 
blister the lips of the proposers of such self-stulti- 
fication and degradation. There might be some 
pledges, if the election ever went to the House, 
and there might not, but they would be of more 
material and earthy things than about negro ab- 
stractions. 

But the Governor sees another lion in the 
way. If Mr. Lincoln's administration should 
not be a mere machine for abolition propagand- 
ist^ he wants to know what the Sumners' the 
Giddiugs' and the Lovejoys' will say about it. 
I will tell him what they will say. That the Re- 
publican idea is a great advance. That to secure 
free territory for free labor is a great gain over 
the principles of the Dred Scott decision and the 
Lecompton fraud, and they must be satisfied with 
Republicanism and Lincoln. So Lovejoy has 
said. He illustrated it in his Buffalo speech, 
wherein he said, that if he had to perform a jour- 
ney on foot to Chicago, and some traveler would 
give him a ride part of the way, he would take 
the ride and be thankful, and not howl because 
the teamster would n't carry him all the way to 
Chicago, when it was not his route. So Lovejoy 
is committed. 

Still the Governor says they will "howl." — 
Well then, if they will, let them howl, as the dog 
did when he bayed the moon. Let everybody 
howl that wants to. Let disappointed office- 
seekers howl, let the treasury thieves howl, let 
me howl, let the baying and ululation be loud 
and deep, of every unreasonable man, and let 
Lincoln do as the moon did — keep right on, keep 
on in the Constitutional track of public and pri- 
vate justice, and the strong sense, and sound 
judgment of the country will shield him against 
every harm such angry brawl can threaten. 

Pray do n't let us lose our senses for tear some- 
body will " howl." 

But there is another way of silencing every- 
body's clamors. It is by magic. Great storms 
have been appeased by the mere wafting of a 
magician's wand, and it can be done again. Let 
me exhume a piece of forgotten history, by way 
of illustration. 

In 1850, the old Whig party in. New York was 
rent asunder. The war of the Roses in England. 
or of the Guelphs and Ghibelines in Italy, was 
not more bitter than of the sections classically 
designated as " Woolly Heads " and " Silver 
Grays." Of course I employ them not offensive- 
ly, but as understood terms of designation. In 
the autumn its usual convention was called at 
that great furnace of political affliction, Syracuse, 
to nominate its candidate for Governor. The 



" Woolly Heads " were largely in the ascendant 
and could nominate their ablest and strongest. 
Their choice fell upon your distinguished fellow 
citizen, Washington Hunt, and after the fashion 
of the times he was set afloat upon a raft or a 
platform of a series of Resolutions. The Silver 
Grays, as they thought, smelt that old rat, " agi- 
tation" in the resolutions, and to the number of 
forty, I think, under a distinguished chieftain, 
left the Convention. 

Loud rolled the thunders of indignation. A 
Silver Gray Convention was summoned to (Jtica^ 
at which terrible judgments were to be prepared 
for those dreadful Woollies, and their candidate 
for Governor. Nothing short of an earthquake, 
which should swallow up him and them, as an- 
other Korah and his host, should appease our in- 
dignation; for I, too, was whirled along by the 
sweep of the storm to that Council of War. 

The difference between the sections was radi- 
cal. Slavery and " agitation" at the bottom of it 
all. How could such belligerents, all acting on 
principle and pure patriotic motives, be recon- 
ciled to each other? Who was the master spirit 
that could^ call back the winds which had gone 
bellowing'out from the yEolian Cave? 

South, East and West, with mixed confusion roar, 
And roll the foaming billons to the shore. 

t; Wait for his letter," was the cry now of onr 
great commander. And the confident air of the 
accomplished Granger was the accepted bow on 
the brow of the storm. At the announcement of 
the reading of the communication of Washington 
Hunt, addressed to the President of the Utica 
Convention, there was breathless silence. Was 
he with us, or was he against us? — that was the 
question. Now some " agitation " passages, out- 
bursts on the Fugitive Slave Law, or some other 
staple topic, alarmed us; but so quickly were 
they followed by the music of the Union that We 
had no opportunity to accumulate our indigna- 
tion. Now we scowled, and now we smiled, but 
happily the letter closed with a grand chorus of 
nationality, which instantly dispelled every cloud 
and called home every angry spirit of the storm. 
This magic wand bridged the chasm that divided 
us, and on our united shoulders he was borne 
from Lockport to Albany to wear the Guberna- 
torial bays. 

And I call all you old Whigs to witness, whe- 
ther as, we stood togelher in that campaign, kink 
head and straight head in loving Union, under 
our distinguished leader, we did not think of good 
old Aaron's beard, and the oil that ran down 
thereon, even to the skirts of his garments. There 
is much virtue in magic. " Lincoln," let me 
assure you, can conjure a spirit as quick as 
" Hunt." 

But to return to more serious discussion. The 
Governor founds upon a radical mistake all his 
apprehensions of the difficulty of running on a 
Constitutional track a Republican Administra- 
tion. That of supposing that the irresponsible 
declamation of the hustings is to be taken as the 
pole star of an Administration with the weight of 
a government upon its shoulders. An Adminis- 
tration has something to do beside echo the Shib- 
boleth of canvassing orators. They have no re 



13 



sponsibility to bear. I. or any other man, may 
rave on the stump or elsewhere like a fool, but 
what heed would Abraham Lincoln and his Cab- 
inet advisers, and his party in Congress, give to 
it when they feel the responsibility of governing 
this mighty Republic? Are these men fools? — 
Are they ambitious to go down to posterity, as 
the men who rent in sunder this mighty Repub- 
lic, who razed to its foundations this fairest struc- 
ture ever dedicated to Freedom and Humanity? 

Is the North another hive of Goths and Van- 
dals, who want to pour down like a flood upon 
the plains of the South to burn and destroy, to 
conquer and desolate? The very question is an 
insult to your understandings. No, no, fellow 
citizens. There is as much, common sense and 
common honesty, and enlightened selfishness, if 
you please, in the Republican as in any other or- 
ganization. It has its tropics, and its frigid zone, 
and its temperate latitudes as has every organi- 
zation, political or religious, and as they ever will 
have until human temperaments are cast in one 
mould of uniformity. Lord Bacon has an apo- 
thegm which will bear study, and richly reward 
the reflection bestowed upon it. 

"As in nature things move violently to their 
place, and calmly in their place, so virtue in am- 
bition is violent, in authority settled and calm." 

Our alarmed friends may, and probably will, 
witness some violence of speech and gesticulation 
in the Republican party, as it contests for power, 
but when it is in authority it will observe the 
great law of nature, be steady, just, "settled and 
calm." 

But he asks again: Why were not our union 
friends South consulted about this organization? 
I will give my poor opinion why. 

The Democratic party has determined upon an 
overthrow of the Constitution, so far as it affects 
slavery, through Congressional- policy and judi- 
cial decision. It has created a reign of Terror 
all over the South, which crushes out all freedom 
of speech and the press on that questton. If a 
man will not echo the new doctrines, he is, if a 
resident of the South, tabooed socially and polit- 
ically. 

And if he be a stranger, he is driven out with 
every indignity. This new pro-slavery policy is 
made in the Douglas or Breckenridge form, the 
aole issue by the Democratic party, on which the 
Campaign is to be conducted. Those who at the 
North resist the new doctrine, must resist them 
at the polls, and through a political organization, 
— and of necessity, by opposing candidates for 
President and Vice-President. They must do this 
or nothing. Now, I say, that such is the tyranny 
of public se.ntiment at the South on this question, 
that it is utterly impossible for the moderate men 
of the South, whom John Bell represents, to co- 
operate with men like you and me at the North, 
on a basis which antagonises affirmatively the 
Democratic party. And they never can, until 
the Democratic party is once soundly beaten, its 
claws pared off, its teeth drawn, and its hostility 
rendered impotent. It now broods like a hedi- 
ous night-mare over the whole South. Men 
speak with bated breath. A despotism central- 
ized in the Democratic party there gives social 



and political law to at least twelve of the fifteen 
Southern States. Take a single illustration. 

Congress spent two months in organizing at 
its last session. Governor Pennington, tin- last 
friend of Mr. Clay to his death, a man of just 
views, no fanatic, and no sympathizer with lu- 
natics of any school, was at length chosen speak- 
er, through the courage of a man, whose name I 
cannot mention without my heart rising to pay 
him honor! — I mean Henry Winter Davis, of 
Maryland. What was the penalty of his hero- 
ism? Not only did the Democratic party of 
.Maryland open all its batteries upon him as a 
traitor to the South, but his own American friends 
bent before the gale, placed their manhood at the 
feet of that insolent power, and united in the in- 
sults to their faithful representative. Human 
nature is weak in the knees; there are but few 
men who can look such a storm in the face and 
defy its fury. There was but one Prometheus — 
either to steal fire from the gods, or to laugh to 
scorn their rage, impaled though he was upon a 
rock, with a vulture feeding at his vitals. While 
Winter Davis lives, there will be at least one man 
who realizes the classic models of courage. And 
this was in Maryland, which is almost repudiated 
by the South as a Slave State. 

I say, then, it is simply impossible for the op- 
position at the South to unite with the opposition 
at the North, in resisting the Democratic policy 
upon open, avowed, affirmative grounds. 

But why, it may be asked, don't you, as the 
Bell party does, oppose the pro-slavery policy — 
but say nothing about it, only raise the good flag, 
the Constitution, and stand on your character? — 
Fight, but fight under a cloud ; march to battle, 
but march without standards or ensigns — drum 
beat or bugle blast? For this reason : The 
masses of men have warm blood running in their 
veins, when they feel earnestly they speak ear- 
nestly, and act earnestly. They are not satisfied 
to have their ideas put under the cover of some 
cold platitude ot rhetoric. Anglo-Saxon like, 
they take a lie by the beard, and call it a lie. — 
They find a foe in the field, and they meet him 
as a foe, and grapple with him as a foe. Why 
did not Patrick Henry in the Virginia House of 
Burgesses, instead of saying, in tones of thun- 
der which thrilled the heart of the Colonies like 
a peal from the heavens : "We must fight, I re- 
peat it, Sir, we must fight''— why did he not 
come from his closet with subuued manner, 
and say in gentle tone which could not touch 
a single heart : "Dearly beloved brethren of 
the American Colonies ; the mother country is 
unkind to us — let us speak to her about it, but for 
God's sake don't speak very loud, and don't hurt 
her feelings." 

In times of struggle for the ascendancy of clash- 
ing opinions, especially if they affect \ ital inter- 
ests, and in all revolutionary periods, there are 
men, worthy men, of calm temperament, who 
dread collisions, who are afraid of the electricity 
in the thunder cloud, and would keep it bottled 
up, who can never actively participate in the 
struggle. They shrink from the necessity of the 
hour. They cannot from temperament, lead the 
masses, and they follow so far in the rear, that 
they are found again in co-operation with them, 



u 



<only when the storm is over, and the ship of State 
Is gallantly riding under the clear blue of heaven, 
and ob a settled sea. Such was not James Otis, 
or Patrick Henry, or John or Samuel Adams, 
In the American Revolution. Such were not the 
Barons who extorted the Magna Charta from 
John at Runnymede. Such was not Cromwell 
who reared the glorious Commonwealth on the 
ruins of the Stuart throne: Such was not Mira- 
beau when the people began to challenge the 
right of the Bourbons to grind the million masses 
of France to powder. It is all idle, you might 
as well ask the hurricane when at its height to re- 
treat to its recesses in the air, as to ask the mas- 
ses of the Opposition at the North, when they 
see the revolutionary doctrines of the slave pro- 
pagandists paraded everywhere as the standard 
of faith and practice, in Convention platforms, 
in Congressional speeches, in newspaper discuss- 
ions, and the democratic army, marching though 
divided, still a unit in the one purpose, with all 
the pomp and circumstance of political war, to 
lace themselves into the strictest sobriety of ex- 
pression, or of no expression, to march with no 
standard, no ensigns, but move with velvet tread 
to the gentlest mood " of flutes and soft recorders." 

I know better what the heart of man is made 
of, and all politicians, and all statesmen, make a 
wide mistake who leave this element out of their 
calculations in political controversies. 

But here is another objection : the Republican 
party is sectional. Here again we ask for a de- 
finition of terms. What constitutes a sectional 
party ? and if the Republicans be sectional, is it 
justifiable ? Is it made sectional by having the 
candidates both for President and Vice President 
from the North or from the South ? Certainly 
not, if the electors in a convention of the North 
and South agree to it. Is it a sectional party if 
it has no being except in the North or South, or 
East or West, and still struggles for the control 
of the National Government ? Geographically, 
it undoubtedly is. But suppose its policy to be 
that of the government since its formation down 
to within eight years, then I say that, politically, 
it is not sectional. But is it not better to have 
the parties of the country as in the old Whig and 
Democratic times ? Undoubtedly, if the issues 
before the country are such that they can be so 
formed upon the issues. But I think I have al- 
ready shown that until we beat the democratic 
party, the reign of Terror will not permit an ef- 
fective National and United Opposition. It is 
as much as their peace and comfort, if not their 
lives, are worth at the South, to attempt it. 

In a true philosophic sense, I call a party or- 
ganized for the purpose of establishing a govern- 
mental policy which shall build up the interests 
of one portion of the country, and crush the in- 
terests of another portion, sectiunal, whether it 
derives all or its main support from the favored 
portion. Such to-day is the democratic party. — 
Its chief strength is in the South, its policy is 
entirely a Southern policy, and revolutionary at 
that. That I call sectional. By the issue so 
presented, the interest to be injured, to wit, the 
Northern, is naturally combined as a resisting 
force; it is not revolutionary, for its purposes to 
keep the government on the old tack. It is sec- 



tional in its organization, but national in its poli- 
cy. The same thing, I would say is true of the 
Baltimore Union party. It is sectional in its or- 
ganization, for its main support is in the South. 
It has a few thousand votes of great respecta- 
bility at the North, about an offset to the Repub- 
lican vote in the South. The Govenor acknowl- 
edges this substantially, for he says: 

" It is now apparent that they will be sustain- 
ed by a majority of the Southern States, and he 
hoped they would receive an effective support in 
some portions of the North." 

But their is another reflection of Governor 
Hunt, rather philosophical than practical, still 
having bearings on the present state of affairs. — 
He says it is a serious objection to parties orga- 
nized on one special idea, that they are not will- 
ing to disband when their business is finished. — 
" They seek to prolong their existence long after 
the causes which gave them birth have disap« 
peared." The reflection is not new. Boling- 
broke made the same couqdamt more than a hun- 
dred years ago. 

That calm thinker said in his letters to Wal- 
pole: "By the Revolution of 1688, the real es- 
sences of Whig and Tory were destroyed, but 
the nominal were preserved, and have done 
since that time a good part of the mischief which 
the real did before.'' A modern English histo- 
rian tells us the same rule holds good to-day. — 
The English Whig and Tory parties which grew 
out of the settlement of the crown on William 
of Orange, and his heirs, now, more than a hun- 
dred years since there has been the least thought 
of disturbing that settlement, are as distinct and 
at times almost as bitter as at the period of their 
formation. A new generation is born into a par- 
ly, and inherits opinions as it does its estates, and 
fights for them as determinedly. The old Whig 
and Democratic parties of this country, had no 
new issues arisen, might have survived a hun- 
dred years. The Whig party was in a great de- 
gree but a personal party from 1844 until 1850. 
It was a Clay party. We of the oposition 
talked about issues, but is was to elect Mr. Clay 
that we struggled. I say it is a healthy state of 
things when a free country is so long left with- 
out the disturbing force of new questions, that 
its parties can remain permanent, to keep watch 
and ward over each other, if on no higher princi- 
ple than systematic opposition. But however 
desirable it may be, and I grant it is, for the now 
divided opposition to unite after the defeat of the 
democracy has made it possible and safe, I take 
issue with the proposition that the Republican 
party has performed its mission — successful re- 
sistance to the new claims of the slave interest. 

First; — I agree Kansas is to be a Free State, but I 
say we want some other force than civil war to 
settle the institutions of every territory. 

Secondly — We shall resist, and must resist the 
doctrine, that slaves are property as other chattels 
are property, and therefore Slavery is a National 
Institution, and must be protected by the Consti- 
tution wherever it pleases to go. 

This plants slavery in every Territory, that is 
the principle of Slavery, and tends to exclude 
free emigration. It is equivalent to a usurpation 
of the Territories bv the slave interest. 



15 



It does more. It roots out the principle of 
State Sovereignty, and as a politica lrule denies 
the right of self-government. The Federal 
Supreme Court will soon be called- upon to 
decide the Lemmon case which arose in this 
State, and as now organized, very likely it will 
decide that New York has not the right as a 
Sovereign State to declare Slave property free 
which is voluntarily brought upon its soil by the 
master. This is the doctrine of the day. I speak 
not of comity, but of Sovereign power and right. 
Then I would like to know why New York is 
not per force just as much a Slave State as Slave- 
ry pleases to make it? Are we prepared to keep 
in power a party that will establish this as a 
rule of political action? 

The overshadowing principle which must be 
restored, is that of the Fathers, and of Mr. Clay, 
Webster, and of statesmen of every school, down 
to within ten years, that slavery is a local 
institution and not of universal law — that free- 
dom is the rule, and slavery the exception after 
the rule has been changed by the sovereign power 
of the people when organized into a State. 

I regard this the must vital principle of the 
time — the most far reaching in its results. And 
here, to my view, is a contest to a certain extent 
sectional in its character The principle of the 
ordinance of 1787, as applied to the North West- 
ern Territory, and of the Missouri restriction, is 
declared by Mr. Douglas and Mr. Breckenridge 
and all their followers, to be unconstitutional. — 
The Republican party says it is constitutional. 
They point to a line of precedents from the 
foundation of the Government, with not a dissent 
until since our Mexican acquisitions. Surely it 
cannot be repugnant to the Constitution. To 
this I agree, — and that the old rule is the wisest 
for the country, infinitely best for humanity. — 
But I have an opinion of my own on this subject, 
and I will give it to you. 

At the time of the formation of the Federal 
Constitution, our Fathers builded better than 
they knew. They had no idea of the expansive 
character — the aggressive character — if you 
please, of their institutions. They had no idea of 
new territorial acquisitions, and therefore they 
made no provisions for them, — and the written 
Constitution is substantially silent on the sub- 
ject Free Constitutions, said Sir James Macin- 
tosh, "are not made, but grow." 

1 have read a plausible argument on every 
side of the territorial question, based upon the 
mere verbal generalities of the written Constitu- 
tion. But the unwritten part of our Federal Con- 
stitution, which was made by the settled law and 
policy of the government, is with us, as is not 
denied by the slave interest. And now the 
struggle is on the part of the slave interest to 
change the unwritten part of our Constitution. 
through Congressional action and Judicial de- 
cision, and on the other part to keep it un- 
changed and hold it where the Fathers anchored 
it. 

The question has arisen, while we are bring- 
ing our acquired territories into use, and when 
slave property has entirely different relations to 
the industrial pursuits and the material wealth 
of the South, than it had at the begining of the 



century. Then the Southern policy was to hem 
in and outroot slavery, on social, moral, and eco- 
nomic principles. Now the policy is to give it 
expansion, and strength, and durability, on the 
same principles. The repeal of the Missouri 
Compromise was the initiatory step towards it 
Can they by governmental policy in all it* 
branches, adapt the Constitution to what they 
regard their interests, to the sacrifice of our in- 
terests? The North has an immense stake in 
this question. 1 do noi say the South, consid- 
ered in a merely material or political point of 
view, has a small stake. I say it is a struggle as 
to which interest shall by governmental policy, 
or judicial construction, determine what the fu- 
ture Constitution shall be. They are "opposing 
forces," and their ''conflict irrepressible," until 
the question be settled. 

Now which side of this issue will we adopt? 
Will we ground arms and let the revolution 
sweep over us, or will we resist it like men, not 
with angry brawl, but with Hie power given US 
to settle all political questions? The ballot does 
not go like the cannon ball — 

Shattering that it may reach, 
And shattering what it readies ; 

Yet it goes "no devious way." noiseless as the 
the foot-fall of a snow-Oake, the voiceless utter- 
ance of a nation's will. 

Where shall we go? Governor Hunt says, in 
his speech, and the late Utica Convention s'ays — 
what does he and it say? Ah! getulemen, they 
remind me of the old oracle that scattered am- 
biguous voices. They say Hell— they mean 
Douglas. I believe I do them no injustice. They 
ask the old friends of Mr. Clay to take by the 
hand the man who leveled from cap-stone to 
foundation, that wall which, resting ou the line 
of latitude 30 deg. 39 minutes, was reared, as he 
purposed and believed, so solid that slavery eon id 
not break through it ; so high that slavery could 
not overleap it ; to secure forever, both "in facl 
and in principle, the Northwest Territory to 
Freedom. 

That rampart was his monument, which Mr. 
Clay supposed would survive when his marble 
shaft and pillared pile, which a grateful country 
would rear to his memory, should have crumbled 
into dust 

Gentlemen, go and swear amity if you will, 
with the political butchers of Mr. Clay. But 1 
forewarn you that the Douglas cave, like that in 
classic fable, has iu its pathway no retreating 
foot-prints. 

Nulla vestigia retrorsum. 

Once entered therein, you Mill never again 
behold the constellations which were the life- 
long guide of our great Ashland leader. 

A single topic further, and I have done. I 
know some of my old political friends, the sin- 
cerity of whose convictions 1 respect — fear that 
this conflict which appears in some form in every 
government in the least degree liberal, will had 
to a dissolution of this Union, the saddest event 
that history could record. ! Ho not believe 
it I know too well the patriotism of the old 
friends of Mr. Clay throughout the South. — 



16 



If it ensue so utterly without provocation, then 
it has no inherent element of perpetuity, and it 
must soon prepare in any event for dissolution. 
There are some disunionists at the South, in 
the Democratic party ; none in the Old Whig or 
modern American party. So long as that feel- 
ing is confined to a few scheming politicians, 
there is no danger. But should, from any cause, 
the fifteen slave States lose all affection for this 
Union, and unitedly determine to withdraw and 
organize a single or several separate govern- 
ments, I do not. expect to see mere force hold 
us together when every tie of sentiment, interest 
and patriotism is sundered. I do not think it 
would be desirable. I have not calculated the 
vajue of this Union. God forbid I should ever 
be called to such a computation. But I do not 
share the fears of those who apprehend that lib- 



erty, with all her thousand . accompanying 
blessings, will depart from us — even should the 
spirit olfaction, as they fear, now so insignificant 
at the South, spread over and absorb her fifteen 
States, and drive them madly from their spheres. 
We have our commerce, our agriculture, 'our 
rivers and lakes, our free mountains and beauti- 
ful valleys. We have a civilization, striking its 
roots deep down in the principles of justice and 
truth, which are as eternal as God. We have 
educated labor, we have institutions of charity, 
of piety, and of learning. We have a past full 
of inspiration, — -a present full of hope and 
promise. We have a future, which, whether 
united with, or separated from our Southern 
brethren, will keep forever these Northern Free 
States in the vanguard of the world's progress. 



THE BUFFALO PATRIOT AND J0UMA1 

FOR THE CAMPAIGN. 



GREAT INDUCEMENTS TO SUBSCRIBE! 



In order that correct information may be extensively circulated among the people, the pro- 
prietor will furnish the Buffalo Patriot and Journal, four months, 

FOR THE LOW PRICE OF THIRTY CENTS ! ! 

Remittances may be made in postage stamps directly to the publisher. 

In order to save postage it would be well for some friend to get up a club in each town and 
forward the names and money. The Patriot and Journal is now universally conceded to be 
the cheapest Journal of its class published, but during the election we are content to send it forth 
at even these reduced rates. 

£^"Those subscribers who forward names and money any time during the month of Septem- 
ber, will be furnished the Patriot and Journal the time mentioned. 

E. :FL- JBWBTT, 
Publisher Buffalo Patriot and Journal,. Bufl&lo. 



THE BUFFALO COMMERCIAL ADVERTISER, 

PUBLISHED DAILY FROM THE SAME OFFICE, 

Is furnished to subscribers at $6.00 per annum, in advance. Semi- Weekly at $3.00. 
Three or six months at the same rate. 

E. IF*~ JEV7ETT. 



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